Story at a glance:
- An unvaccinated, unmasked Marin County teacher in California infected half of her students after she read aloud.
- The CDC reported last Friday that 2 million students between the ages of 5 and 17 have been hospitalized for COVID-19.
- The unmasked teacher spread the delta variant amongst 26 people in total, according to the CDC.
An unvaccinated, unmasked Californian teacher infected half of her students when she read aloud.
In Marin County, there was an outbreak from mid-May to June, and the teacher was one out of two staff members at the school who were unvaccinated. Despite her symptoms in mid-May she continued to work until she received a positive coronavirus test.
Tracked down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which does not release the identities of those infected with COVID-19, the unmasked teacher spread the delta variant amongst 26 people in total, including half her class, The Guardian reported.
America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
Researchers at the CDC said the teacher in question was experiencing symptoms two days prior to reading unmasked to her students, something that she was not supposed to do because all teachers are supposed to be masked indoors at the school.
And while children ages between 12 and 17 are eligible for vaccination, the majority of elementary school students are not so fortunate.
“Delta is doubly infectious, and we need to step up our game to keep kids in school safely,” Tom Frieden, a former head of the CDC, said, The Guardian reported. “That means teachers, staff and eligible students need to be vaccinated, and EVERYONE needs to be masked. Multiple layers of protection are essential.”
The new outbreak is more likely to push those to require schools to force vaccination on teachers in Marin County, The Guardian reports. Such is the case in some of New York City’s school districts.
The CDC reported last Friday that 2 million students between the ages of 5 and 17 have been hospitalized for COVID-19, 300 of which have resulted in death.
As Changing America previously reported, it is unclear why more children are sick due to the delta variant outbreak, but medical experts believe the surges in pediatric cases are due to the variant’s hypertranmissibility — how easy it is for the virus to circulate in a population that is unvaccinated.
READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA
STUDY SAYS NEW LAMBDA VARIANT COULD BE VACCINE-RESISTANT
AMERICAN ‘ARCHBISHOP’ IS DISTRIBUTING BLEACH AS ‘MIRACLE CURE’ FOR COVID-19
THE SIGNS YOU HAVE THE DELTA VARIANT ARE DIFFERENT THAN ORIGINAL COVID-19
EVIDENCE MOUNTS THAT DELTA VARIANT IS DANGEROUS FOR KIDS
THERE’S ONE KIND OF MASK THAT WON’T PROTECT YOU FROM THE DELTA VARIANT
NEW POLL DISCOVERS WHO AMERICANS BLAME FOR CURRENT COVID-19 SURGE
TRUMP SLAMMED BY HIS OWN FORMER HHS SECRETARY OVER PRIVATE VACCINATION
‘THE WAR HAS CHANGED’: CDC DOCUMENT WARNS DELTA VARIANT MORE SEVERE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
changing america copyright.
